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Power of not knowing

The world as I know it is, for the most part, stained with cynicism and extreme political correctness (PC).

Yet, in the past week, I was witness to two events that went against the common grain. A 'Rin ki shakti' as regards the stain mentioned above. The first case is that of PC. As if it was the most obvious fact in the world, a colleague intimated that I was very Quasimodo-ish, in terms of looks. She said it with a visceral nonchalance that was unnerving. Look, my life's not exactly been sheltered or subtle in its lessons. There's only so many times you can observe a girl's eyes slide clean over you, as if you never existed, before cottoning on to the fact that in a rainbow world, you are grey. So I'm very aware that this visage isn't exactly a gift from the heavens.

But I've never actually been told so.

I have heard of people told point blank that they don't possess that intangible X-factor of attractiveness. However, I have never actually come across a situation where someone I know has been told that they are indisputably unattractive. In this PC world, I guess its just not done. Yet, it was, leaving me in a tricky 'reaction' dilemma. It would probably be unsurprising if I took offence at her words. Wouldn't it be hypocritical of me to do so, since she was only confirming something I already knew ? Conundrum, conundrum.

The second case is that of cynicism. I guess the easiest concept to be cynical about is love. Right now isn't the time to get into the nitty-gritties of it and besides, I'm confident that you lot understand the whole deal. To cut to the chase, I found our that two friends from my Pune Univ. days are getting engaged. Since friends of mine are getting hitched left, right and centre, its not front-page news. What distinguishes this one is the background. In college, the dude in question very publicly serenaded another girl and they were, to use that peculiar expression, 'an item'. The dudette in question had a soft spot for the guy which she let him know.

As it so often happens, 'the item' didn't work out. We all graduated and went our separate ways. Flash-forward 4 years and I found out, to my immense delight, that dudette and dude are the two getting engaged. Honestly, I wouldn't have given the longest of odds on the two of them getting together. In my universe, their engagement is a miracle.

But I'm cynical & don't believe in miracles. So, how do I explain what happened ? I can't.

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